In general, when diagnosing a disease, the number and function of representative blood cells such as red blood cells, white blood cells or platelets contained in blood are scanned.
For example, tuberculosis, obesity or pregnancy may be diagnosed from an erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and dehydration or anemia may be diagnosed from a hematocrit.
Further, chronic leukemia may be diagnosed from the number of platelets. A kidney disease, hypoxia, smoking, lung disease, hemolytic anemia, aplastic anemia or the like may be diagnosed from the number of red blood cells. Acute appendicitis, leukemia or aplastic anemia may be diagnosed from the number of white blood cells.
In this way, the measurement of the number of cells such as blood cells are closely related with the diagnosis of a disease.
The sizes of red blood cells as representative blood cells are classified into four types of micro, normal, macro and mega. By identifying the size and number of red blood cells, they may be used as the material for the diagnosis of various diseases as described above.
In particular, scanning the number of red blood cells is essential to diagnose anemia and a cause thereof.
In the case of a general healthy person, approximately 4.4 to 5.6 million/dl red blood cells are contained in the blood in the case of a male, and 3.5 to 5 million/dl red blood cells are contained in the blood in the case of a female.
When it is found through the measurement of the number of red blood cells that the number of red blood cells is more than a reference value, diseases such as intrinsic plethora, dehydration, shock, renal failure or a cardiopulmonary disease may be diagnosed.
In addition, in the case of reduction in the number of red blood cells, various anemia may be diagnosed.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating an example of a conventional sample storage device for measuring the number of blood cells such as red blood cells.
As shown in FIG. 1, a conventional sample storage device 10 for measuring the number of red blood cells includes a body 15 which is generally formed of glass or quartz, a pair of partition walls 20 and 25 which are formed on the upper surface of the body 15, a measurement part 30 which is formed between the pair of partition walls 20 and 25, and a cover 35 which covers the measurement part 30 at an upward position.
The pair of partition walls 20 and 25 which are formed on the upper surface of the body 15 and the measurement part 30 which is positioned between the pair of partition walls 20 and 25 are formed by, for example, micromachining the body 15 which is formed of glass or quartz.
The pair of partition walls 20 and 25 are formed to project upward from the upper surface of the body 15 on both sides of the measurement part 30, and thus prevents a sample from leaking out of the measurement part 30 when dropping the sample such as blood into the measurement part 30.
The transparent cover 35 which is formed of glass is placed on the pair of partition walls 20 and 25, and the sample is positioned in the measurement part 30 between the pair of partition walls 20 and 25 and the cover 35 so that the number of cells, such as blood cells in blood, existing in the sample may be measured.
However, in the conventional sample storage device 10 as described above, since the body 15 and the cover 35 are separate from each other, a problem may be encountered in that the cover 35 should be positioned in place after dropping the sample into the measurement part 30.
Also, another problem may be encountered in that, in order to ensure adhesion between the cover 35 and the partition walls 20 and 25, it may be necessary to adhere the cover 35 to the partition walls 20 and 25 by separately using an adhesive or the like.
In order to cope with such problems, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, a sample storage device has been disclosed, in which an upper substrate 61 and a lower substrate 63 are adhered integrally with each other and a sample may be introduced through an inlet opening 61a defined in the upper substrate 61 and be charged in a flow path 61b such that the number of cells existing in the sample may be measured.
Nevertheless, in the conventional integral type sample storage device as described above, a problem may be caused in that, since the upper substrate 61 and the lower substrate 63 formed through injection molding should be stacked in a state in which they are aligned with each other by using an alignment jig and then should be adhered with each other by using an adhesive, a manufacturing procedure is complicated.
Moreover, because the upper substrate 61 and the lower substrate 63 are formed through injection molding to define a heightwise space (or protuberances) for forming a sample charging space, a problem may be caused in that substantial costs are incurred to fabricate molds for forming the respective substrates 61 and 63.